I mismanaged my time today, and didn't get to go out to do my bug walk until later than I'd planned, and then didn't have as much time as I thought I would need. Still, I was out there for an hour, but it turns out that I didn't find much, so I guess it doesn't matter. The last couple of nights it's been pretty cold, and today never really warmed up. Perhaps that affected what bugs wanted to come out. Today I took about a third as many pictures as yesterday.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Thread-waisted wasp. The wasps as adult feed on flowers, but they prey on caterpillars to feed their young in burrows. Do you see what's in the background of this picture?
Before it flew away, the wasp investigated the contracted datanas. They twitched in protest. You can see that since yesterday they have eaten many of the leaves off that branch. When the wasp feinted at them they also started spewing that dark liquid again. I did manage to find information about that last night online, and that is a defense mechanism of some caterpillars (although I did not find a specific reference to datanas of any kind). I read about one study, though, that said that caterpillars are much less likely to do this if they are in a group. Obviously, these caterpillars don't go by that policy. It also said it's not good for the caterpillars, so now I feel bad about having distressed them enough to make them do this several days in a row.
Other Bugs:
Banded tussock moth caterpillar, again.
Every year I manage to get one picture of a katydid on autumn joy sedum flowers. Not yet this year, but this one was close...
Still there
Weevil
Yesterday's caterpillar. This is the first time I have seen it eating, and to my surprise what it is eating is a dead flower.
Today instead of about a dozen bumblebees on the autumn joy sedum (there was only one), there were honey bees and some kind of wasp:
In general I saw a lot of honey bees today and very few bumblebees:
Dragonfly
It is sitting on the dead flower head of a Queen Anne's lace plant.
Geometer moth of some kind
Sawfly larva
Of course, after I said yesterday that there are always katydids in the old vegetable garden today I could not find any, but I found tree crickets on a milkweed plant there:
There are two tree crickets here. The antennae are always a giveaway of their presence.
Plant hopper
A couple of stinkbug nymphs:
Tachinid fly
Arachnid Appreciation:
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Nursery web spider hiding under the rain gauge.
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